Double Bass Basics

When one foot isn't enough

Duration: 25 min Focus: Foot Technique

That continuous low roar under a thrash chorus is not one foot working overtime. It is two. Double bass means a second pedal, either a slave pedal linked to your main one by a driveshaft or an entire second bass drum, so the feet alternate R L R L the same way your hands alternate in a single-stroke roll. The four exercises here climb the ladder the rest of this track is built on: one kick per beat, then two, then four, then a groove sitting on top of them.

All four write the kicks on one staff line, so nothing on the page tells you which foot played which note. The sticking does that, and from Exercise 2 on it is strict alternation with your lead foot on the beats. Sort out one piece of hardware before you count in. Once both feet are on bass pedals your left foot has left the hi-hat pedal, so lower the clutch until the top cymbal rests on the bottom one — nothing else is holding the hats shut while your hand plays them.

The hand part is identical in all four exercises: straight 8ths on the closed hat, eight strokes a bar, start to finish. It is the control variable, so when the sound changes, the feet changed it. Exercise 1 puts a single kick under every other hat stroke at ♩ = 90, one foot only, and it is the only one here you can play on a single pedal. Exercise 2 holds that tempo and brings the second foot in on the & of every beat, so every kick now has a hat stroke sitting directly on top of it. A flam between hand and foot has nowhere to hide there, which is why the tempo does not move: the second foot is the only new thing in the bar.

Exercise 3 is where the feet break away from the hands. Sixteen kicks a bar against eight hat strokes, and with R L R L starting on beat 1, the R foot keeps landing with the hat on the beats and the &s while the L foot takes every e and every a. The weak foot has just lost its cover. Its notes are the only ones in the bar with no hand stroke over them, so any softness in it reads as a limp in the 16th stream. The written tempo drops to ♩ = 80 here, because hand 8ths against foot 16ths is a coordination problem before it is a speed problem, and even with the drop the foot rate climbs from 180 kicks a minute to 320. Exercise 4 changes nothing underneath and adds the backbeat on 2 and 4 above it, and that combination is the sound the first three exercises have been building toward.

Work them in order, and give Exercise 1 more time than it looks like it deserves. Two minutes of quarters at ♩ = 90 with the leg still loose is the stamina every exercise above it borrows from. On Exercise 3, start well under the written tempo, 60 is a reasonable place to begin, and move the click up only when the 16ths sound like one continuous stream instead of loud-soft-loud-soft. Do not press the beater into the head and hold it there on every stroke. That buried sound is a real metal choice at slower kick rates, but 16 to a bar is too many to hold down; let the beater rebound and use the bounce to start the next one.

Speed is not what fails first. Volume is. Drop your hands, play the feet of Exercise 2 alone for 30 seconds, and record it. If you hear a pulse every other kick, your L is quieter than your R and what you are playing is an 8th-note stream accented on every beat, not an even one. More reps at that tempo will not fix it; reps at a slower tempo where both feet sound identical will. The second failure happens upstairs. When the feet jump to 16ths the hand wants to go with them, rushing the hat or leaning into it, and the graduation bar for Exercise 4 asks for a steady hat while the kicks run underneath. The moment the hat drifts, stop the feet, play four bars of hat alone until it settles, then bring the feet back in.

1 — Quarter-Note Kicks

4/4 · ♩ = 90
Single foot, kick on every quarter. This is the warmup — your dominant foot should be able to do this for two minutes without the leg getting tired. If it can't, slow down or work on heel-up technique before adding the second foot.

2 — Eighth-Note Kicks (Alternating Feet)

4/4 · ♩ = 90
Eight kicks per bar — now the second foot enters. Alternate R L R L R L R L. The non-dominant foot will feel weaker for the first few hundred reps; that's expected. Focus on even volume between feet, not speed.

3 — Sixteenth-Note Kicks

4/4 · ♩ = 80
Sixteen kicks per bar at ♩=80 — sticking R L R L repeated. Tempo dropped slightly because the hand 8ths and foot 16ths together are a real coordination challenge. The hi-hat hand has to stay steady while the feet move twice as fast.

4 — Basic Metal Groove (16th Kicks Underneath)

4/4 · ♩ = 80
Basic backbeat in the hands, 16th-note double-bass underneath. This is the core metal sound — the snare on 2 and 4 carries the song while the kicks gallop. Slow it down if needed; this is hard.
Move on when
  • 8th-note alternating double bass at ♩=90 for 1 minute without the non-dominant foot fading
  • Basic metal groove (Ex 4) at ♩=80 with steady hi-hat
  • Kicks are evenly spaced — no rushing the doubles
Listening 2 records

Listen for it

  1. 01

    Lars Ulrich Metallica — One

    The canonical double-bass entrance: the machine-gun section near the end. Listen to how the feet lock to the guitars, not just the click.

  2. 02

    Dave Lombardo Slayer — Angel of Death

    Double-bass endurance and evenness at extreme tempo. The feet are a single instrument, not two alternating ones.